Baking oven



March 11, 1941. o. s. HASKELL BAKING OVEN Filed April 5, 1959 Fig. I.

Fig.2.

u. u 8 E n ma w m m m W;

Patented Mar. 11, 1941 PATENT OFFICE BAKING OVEN Orin S. Haskell,

Schenectady, N. Y., assignor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Application April 5, 1939, Serial No. 266,227

1 Claim.

My invention relates to baking ovens, and particularly to baking ovens of the type wherein the material to be heated is passed continuously therethrough. Although it has other applications, the oven comprising my invention is particularly useful for baking one or more coatings, such as varnish or enamel, on wire. My invention has for its object the provision of an improved oven having a construction which requires a minimum of space, has small heat loss and facilitates the inspection and replacement of the heating elements employed therein without otherwise disturbing the oven.

My invention will be better understood from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, and its scope will be pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring to the drawing, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of one embodiment of my invention; Fig. 2 is a vertical transverse section thereof; Figs. 3 and 4 show respectively detail views drawn to a larger scale of portions of Figs. 1 and 2; Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 1; and Fig. 6 shows a modification.

As shown in the drawing, the oven comprises a steel enclosing casing i which includes the heating chamber 2 and superposed thereover the {chamber 3 in which the coated wire is given a further heat treatment by which the coating thereon is completely hardened. The casing i is supported in an elevated position by the legs 4, and beneath it is arranged the apparatus 5 by which the coating is applied to the wire. on the top of the casing is the hood 8 which connects through the outlet duct 1 with a stack to carry oif the fumes or, if preferred. it may connect with suitable apparatus for the recovery of the vapors .driven off from the wire. The casing also supports the pulleys 8' at the top thereof and the pulleys 9 and ID at the side thereof. Other pulleys il below the apparatus 5 are supported from the legs 4.

Wire I2 is withdrawn from one or more reels l3 over one or more pulleys H from which it passes up through the coating apparatus 5 and thence vertically through the chamber 2 where a baking and hardening of the coating occurs. It then passes on through the chamber 3 where by a continuation of the heat treatment the hardening process is completed. From the upper end of the chamber 3 the wire passes over one or more pulleys 8 to one or more reels ll which are shown as driven by the motor l5. As thus described the wire makes a single traverse through the oven. If it is desired to give a wire a ing chamber.

plurality of coats,

rality or times, the wire instead of passing to a reel l4 will pass over .the

small pulleys 9 and it to a pulley H. Pulleys 9 and I preferably are driven as for example b the chains i8 and I9 from the motor l5 in order to reduce friction. In the drawing three separate wires are shown each receiving three coats and passing through the heating chamber in three strands.

That part of the heating chamber 2 is lined with the heat insulating material and with the refractory material 2 i, the latter forming the walls of the heat- The narrow heating chamber 2 is heated to the proper degree by heat radiators 16 which, as shown in Figs. 1, 3 and 4, comprise the straight transverse resistor rods 22 which, as better shown in Fig. 3, pass through the refractory material at the sides of the chamber and through suitable openings in the casing 1. Each rod is 20 shown secured by cement 23 in the nipple N which is welded to the exterior of the casing. The several resistor rods are connected by the connectors 25 with a suitable source of current supply, not shown, preferably by individual switches 25 whereby each resistor is separately controlled. An advantage of this manner of mounting the resistor rods is that any particular rod may be readily removed from the oven for inspection or replacement by simply removing the cement at either end and withdrawing the rod bodily from the oven. Thus any particular rod may be removed or renewed without in any way disturbing the other rods or without in any way interfering with the continuous operation of the oven.

As shown by Fig. 2, the resistor rods 22 are arranged adjacent to the opposite walls of the chamber 2, being preferably slightly spaced therefrom to allow better circulation of air and to avoid the formation of hot spots, and are stag- 4o gered. By this arrangement the coated wire as it is drawn upward through the chamber is subjected to radiant heat from both sides, and the upward flow of heated air in the chamber is retarded, thereby conserving heat energy put into the furnace. The staggered arrangement of the resistor bars, moreover, produces a turbulence of the ascending column of air which brings the air into more intimate contact with the coated wire and thereby expedites the hardening of the coat- 60 ing. Hence a shorter chamber and fewer resistance bars are required.

Each resistor rod 22 comprises the central resistance conductor 21 enclosed by a metallic sheath 28 which preferably is grounded and incasing I which encloses the 10' sulated from the conductor by the layer of insulation 28. Resistance rods so constructed are of particular value in an oven 01' I the above described character inasmuchpas there is no danger of the wire touching the conductors and producing a short circuit in the oven in the event that it becomes broken. The insulating sheath and the conductor being made in a unit also has the advantage that the entire resistor may be inserted and removed in one operation and also the heating chamber can be made narrower than would be the case were the conductor to be provided with a separate sheath. Moreover, the rating of the oven may readily be changed by substituting higher or lower rated units.

The chamber 8 through which the wire in passing continues to be heated and the coating to become further hardened is made as narrow as practicable to limit the loss of heat and is also tapered from bottom to top to correspond with the vibration angle of the strands of wire extending therethrough whereby the loss of heat through the chambers is reduced to asminimum.

In the modified form of. my invention illustrated by Fig. 6, the oven is heated by fuel such as gas or oil, and for that purpose the oven is provided with heat radiators comprising the straight fuel fired tubes 35. The tubes are arranged adjacent to the walls of the heating chamher, being removable longitudinally and staggered in the same manner as the resistors in Figs. 2 and 4. They may connect with the headers 36, preferably heat insulated, at opposite sides of the oven, each heater being shown divided by the central partition 3l into an intake and an exhaust portion. Preferably the connections are such that alternate tubes carry heat in the same diaascnso I rection, adjacent tubes carrying heat in opposit directions. Hot gas may, if desired, be supplied to the tubes by individual burners, but I prefer to employ the headers to which hot gas is supplied. The gas may, for example, be taken from a gas atmosphere producer such as that disclosed in my Patent 2,085,584 June 29, 1937, in which case the intake portions of the headers would be connected to receive the hot gas fromthe producer without passing to the cooler. If it is desired to have a gas atmosphere in the oven, the tubes may be provided with the holes 38 to allow some of the atmosphere to escape into the heating chamber.

I have chosen the particular embodiment described above as illustrative of my invention, and it will be apparent that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention which modification I aim to cover by the appended claim.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

A baking oven comprising a heat insulatin structure open to the atmosphere at the top and bottom and forming a narrow heating chamber through which a column of heated air may ascend, means for moving a plurality of coated strands of wire vertically through said chamber and a plurality of transverse heat radiators adjacent the opposite side walls of said chamber and close to said strands, the radiators adjacent one wall being staggered with respect to those adjacent the other wall thereby increasing the turbulence of the heated air passing through the chamber and impeding the natural upward flow thereof. I

ORIN S. HASKELL. 

